Doctors are worried about the particularly vulnerable population of the elderly and the newborn. With stagnant water around the island and with widespread power failure, there are worries about the Zika virus spread by mosquitoes as well as leptospirosis that would have a dangerous impact on pregnant women and newborn children. Generators from the U.S. government and solar arrays from Tesla have been able to help the hospitals in certain areas, but health clinics and hospitals in the rural interior remain in distress.
Decline in population
Puerto Rico's population has been declining over the past two decades. From 2005 to 2015, a staggering 10 percent of the population -- 446,000 people -- moved to the U.S. mainland. There is an expectation that an equal number will leave the island over the next few months. The same thing happened to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The city has since been remoulded as a playground for tourists and the rich. The U.S. government's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has created a program to transport Puerto Ricans to the mainland. The island, cynics say, is being prepared to be converted into a tourist resort, with "excess" inhabitants relocated.
This story originally appeared in Frontline (India).
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